Mr. Webster O'brien Webster Golden Plover

Mr. Webster Nantucket, MA, c. 1850 9 1/2 in. long

This decoy represents one of the very best of the smooth-wing decoys from this rig. Created in an upright calling posture, the swooping lines of this example are on full display.

Early collectors Donal C. O’Brien Jr., William J. Mackey Jr., and Adele Earnest all believed that the plover from this rig were among the finest works of American folk art they had ever come across.

Indeed, Mackey and O’Brien hunted down and acquired fifteen of the seventeen examples that surfaced. The majority continues to reside in the O’Brien collection and one can be seen in Mackey and Weiler’s "Classic Shorebird Decoys" portfolio.

The group, while cohesive in its paint, which depicts breeding plumage, appears to have been made without a pattern. This free-hand approach produced a lively flock with no two birds exactly alike. Original paint with even gunning wear.

Provenance: Franklin Folger Webster Collection, Nantucket, Massachusetts Donal C. O'Brien Jr. Collection The Johnson Collection, acquired from the above, 2005

Literature: Milton C. Weiler, "The Classic Decoy Series: A Portfolio of Paintings," New York, NY, 1969, pl. 2, rigmate illustrated. William Doyle Galleries, “Waterfowl and Shorebird Decoys,” New York, NY, April 15, 1981, back cover and p. 61, lot 76, rigmate illustrated twice. Joe Engers, “Dr. Peter J. Muller: Bringing a good eye and an artistic approach to decoy collecting,” Decoy Magazine, January/February 2008, p. 8, rigmate illustrated. Robert Shaw, "Call to the Sky: The Decoy Collection of James M. McCleery, M.D.," Houston, TX, 1992, p. 13, related example illustrated. Richard A. Bourne Co., Inc., "Very Rare and Important American Bird Decoys from the Collection of the late William J. Mackey Jr. of Belford, New Jersey," Hyannis, MA, 1973, Session III, lot 320, rigmate illustrated. Jeff Waingrow, “The American Decoy: Folk Sculpture from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Donal C. O’Brien Jr.,” The Clarion: America’s Folk Art Magazine, Fall 1981, p. 30, rigmate illustrated. Jackson Parker, “O’Brien Classic Decoys on Display at Museum of American Folk Art,” North American Decoys Magazine, Spring/Summer 1982, p. 34, rigmate illustrated. Laurence Sheehan, "The Sporting Life," New York, NY, 1992, p. 79, two rigmates illustrated. Copley Fine Art Auctions, "The Donal C. O'Brien Jr. Collection of Important American Sporting Art and Decoys, Sessions I-II," July 27, 2017, inside front cover, six rigmates illustrated in O’Brien’s living room.

Provenance

Franklin Folger Webster Collection, Nantucket, Massachusetts Donal C. O'Brien Jr. Collection The Johnson Collection, acquired from the above, 2005